Time Machine

A very dear friend of many, is fighting for her life and as I read and re-read the prayers being said over her to be healed, I realize that some of the people in that group I’ve known for a very long time…

There is no doubt in my mind, that looking back it was ordained by God that we would all meet. Life happened; and circumstances changed over the years but still there is the connection…the God-connection. It hit me that I’ve known some of these people for over thirty years…and I began to cry…because we are here now at this specific time in life praying for this beautiful, precious woman of God who prayed for us many times…she is and was a mentor and a precious friend. She is now in need of our, prayers. I know God hears and I know he answers and I believe we are all connected and were ordained to be part of each other’s lives, then for now. There is no coincidence in the life of a child of God.

We may not see eye to eye on things…and we may not have even been in contact with each other over the years, but then this happened to someone we all know and love and suddenly we are all together again…one focus, one mind, one heart, crying out to the Great Physician to hear our fervent prayer, to heal one of his own.

No, God didn’t make her sick, but he will use every thing that happens in our lives to bring Him glory and to bring us into His presence…seeking Him for life and peace and hope and health and restoration so that many will be helped.

God is love! God is peace! God is hope! God is strength and joy and it is His Spirit that woos us unto himself.

Friends are friends forever if the Lord’s the Lord of them…Michael W. Smith’s song…is so true…

So, think about this, the person you meet today may be the very person who, years from now, will be standing in the gap for you…interceding on your behalf for healing, restoration, or some need that is catastrophic to you…we never know what God has in store for us…but we can know that He is faithful and will always be with us, no matter what.

So, love people…show mercy and kindness, even to those who are not so kind back. They can change…especially if we are praying for them.

Thirty years from now seems like a long time…but if you are blessed enough to live long enough and you are still here thirty years from now, the people you’ve met along the way will still be important to you. There’s history and a connection that ties us together and the thing is, after this life we’ll be spending it with all the ones we’ve met on our journey who’ve gone ahead of us into that heavenly world.

This life is not a dead end…Life is not over when our body dies…our spirit is alive because of Jesus!

There is a place more real, more beautiful than anything on earth! We are here for a purpose and when we are made new through the blood of Jesus, and His Spirit, comes to live within us…we have no need to fear because where he is, is LIFE! He, His Spirit, gives us Power, His Spirit gives us Love and His Spirit gives us a Sound Mind, the mind of Christ! We have no need to fear. The enemy cannot pierce us through with his sword of fear or death, why, because, he’s been defeated!!

When someone’s body dies, yes, we are heart broken because we won’t see them anymore. We’ll miss them terribly…but we have a hope and a future that where they are, we will go, after we finish our assignment here. Like Paul said, “For me to live is Christ and to die is gain!”

So, don’t grieve as those who have no hope…Our hope is in The Lord Jesus Christ! Here and now as it will be, then!

Pray; talk and then listen to God…Read God’s Word; let him speak to you…and Love unashamedly, the way He loves, unconditionally.

Blink…and thirty years have passed…

~Marla Shaw O’Neill October 7, 2019

“For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” Philippians 1:21 New International Version (NIV)

 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 1 John 4:7 New King James Version (NKJV)

 For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. 2 Timothy 1:7 New King James Version (NKJV)

I read it like this…God has not given us a spirit of fear…God has given us His Spirit of Power, His Spirit of Love and His Spirit of a Sound Mind the Mind of Christ!